Where We Go | Book Three

9. My Kind of Woman

The gated community was far more grandeur than I expected. Ben had already explained his mum was wealthy but, maybe, I hadn't stopped to think where he'd been living with Jackie before everything happened. When he jumped out of the car to unlock the gate, I was still speechless. Nobody else in the car dared speak either, all of us thinking we were in a dream when he told Pilot which house to park in front of.

With the sheer scale of it standing before us, none of my guesses would have been correct anyway. The house was beyond anything I could have pictured. It was the kind you'd only ever see in glossy magazines; the kind no average person would ever think about living in. 

It was beautifully grand with white brick decorating its exterior, not a crack daring to brush its surface. Carefully built white windows scaled the front wall, spreading over two floors, revealing the large staircase inside. 

The only sign of the place being unkept was the overgrown bushes that lined the front of the house and the tall grass which occupied the space in the centre of the community.

"Ben, you didn't tell me you were this rich," Chris scoffed. "I would've been way nicer to you."

"I doubt that," he muttered.

Stepping out of the car, the pale stones crunched under our feet, and it was Chris who seemed the most impressed and taken aback at his new surroundings.

"Two garages?" he exclaimed.

"Don't get excited," Ben stopped him as he pulled a bag from the back. "The cars got stolen at the start of the outbreak."

Chris' shoulders slumped and he grimaced. "What cars were they?"

Ben held back a laugh and pointed to the first parking space. "Audi," he said, moving his hand to point to the next. "Porsche."

Chris clenched his chest. "That hurts. I'm truly heartbroken."

"Yeah," Ben sighed. "You would think people would've had bigger priorities back then, but obviously not."

Pilot helped Julia out of the truck. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and he took her weight as they limped inside. The rest of us followed behind Ben through the house. The hallway had been painted white but a black and white checkerboard pattern spanned the length of the floor with a black railing leading along the stairs. Against the wall, small, plastic, leafy green plants were dotted across the hall table.

In the kitchen, the room spread itself out further. Ben carefully placed his backpack and gun on the white marble island in the centre of the room and we all followed. Once again, Chris seemed to take the most interest. He opened the dark grey cupboards one after the other, even being surprised by the contents of the ones which had glass fronts.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I still can't get over the fact you were rich," Chris laughed.

"My mum's salary was impressive," Ben explained, resting his elbows on the counter. "And that's putting it politely... She had nothing else to spend it on except the house and the cars."

"Sounds like my kind of woman," Julia laughed.

Chris opened the tall cupboard door at the corner of the room and looked surprised to find a staircase behind it. His eyes narrowed. "What's down there?"

"It's empty," Ben replied simply.

Chris shrugged and closed the door. "If you had this place, why move and have everyone huddled in Carnelian?"

Ben's stare shifted to the counter, finding invisible scratches to run his fingers over. "It wasn't safe here, Will and I both knew that. People here knew who mum was, what she did... and by association, we both became a target..." He sighed a deep and heavy breath. "The cars got stolen because they were trying to keep us here. To try and get answers we didn't have."